Authenticity in digital printing

Abstract

For those presently undertaking research and practice within the field of digitally printed textiles, inadequately defined boundaries can potentially lead to confusion and misunderstanding. This paper aims to clarify what is meant by the term digital print and locate authenticity within it, by drawing comparisons with photography in order to better explain some of the contextual issues that currently surround the digital printing of textiles.The scope ranges from an initial idea formed as a digital file that is stored on a computer, to the act of depositing droplets of dye through the print heads of a digital printer as an image, which is subsequently steamed and fixed onto the fabric substrate. There are, however, many processes and techniques involved in digital printing, none of which are unique to the digital printing of textiles; each individual technique, according to Cambridge University's Andy Hopper, 'can also be used to manufacture high-value, high precision products such as flat-panel displays, printed electronics, and photovoltaic cells for power generators' (2010). Also, as author Sarah Braddock Clarke states, the computer is only a tool, so it is not the computer, but rather the artist or designer, who makes the 'aesthetic decisions' (2007: 178). Nonetheless, increasingly these technologies are providing complex, rewarding and aesthetically challenging opportunities for contemporary textile artists, designers and craftspersons.